If you have an old, black and white image you want colorized,
typically you have to seek out an expert in Photoshop. That
person would then have to meticulously paint over each detail of
the image, taking hours to return each to a best approximation of
its original color.

But it's a brave new world out there folks. There's a computer
algorithm, free to use on the internet, that can colorize your
photos in seconds. It is, according to its creators, the product
of machine learning algorithm, though they don't offer a
tremendous amount of detail as to how it works.

We first spotted it in an
article by Chris Plante at The Verge. He used the Algorithmia
Colorize Photos software to colorize images from "The Wizard of
Oz." I have a whole bunch of old black-and-white JPEGs laying
around, and decided to try it on them.

The tool seems to work best when it can clearly distinguish
earthy objects, people, and sky. Here's the original photo from
the top of this article:

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

And here's the result:

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

The tool appears to work primarily with a palate of blues and
sepia, which — when it works out — can produce some amazing
results.

Here's another black-and-white image fairly successfully made
color:

Rafi
Letzter/Tech Insider

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

But the app runs into trouble when you ask it to colorize a scene
that it — apparently — can't make out.

Several images were rendered entirely sepia:

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

And others seemed almost random:

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

Rafi Letzter/Tech Insider

Still, when it did work even reasonably well, it was hard not to
be impressed with the results.